查看文章

This paper examines the earnings of immigrants to the United States, relative to those of comparable natives. I measure the impact of the age at which an immigrant arrived in the country on his relative earnings and on the rate at which his relative earnings rise with time since arrival. I demonstrate that age at arrival has a large negative effect on immigrant earnings. For example, I find that an immigrant who arrived in the United States at age 30 is at an 11.6% earnings disadvantage, relative to an otherwise comparable immigrant who arrived at age 10. I further show that, among labor force participants, there is a spurious negative correlation between age at arrival and years since arrival. This is because, among immigrants who have been in the United States for many years, those who immigrated later in life have already retired and are no longer in a sample of working people. Similarly, among immigrants who have been in the country only a few years, those who arrived as children have not yet joined the labor force, and thus are also excluded from a sample of working people. Since age at arrival has an adverse effect on immigrant earnings, previous studies that do not correct for this factor necessarily overstate the relative earnings gain that immigrants experience with time since migration. Taking into account age at immigration, I present corrected estimates of the rate at which the earnings of immigrants catch up to those of comparable natives with years since arrival. I find that the rate of earnings convergence is lower than uncorrected estimates would indicate, particularly for those who immigrated at a young age. Finally, in contrast to the …